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Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Cutting Districts

The Western North Carolina Conference (WNCC) decided to move from 15 districts to 8 districts by January 2013.This move will save the conference $1.5 million dollars a year that Bishop Goodpaster (BG) would like to see go towards making our churches more vital in our area and starting new congregations.This is hot news among the denomination considering while I was at the School of Congregational Development I spoke to people from California to New Jersey who had heard of this decision.Some were excited.Others warned of the impending doom that will follow (ok a little harsh but I was told by a DS from another conference that we would lose 5-7% of our giving towards apportionments because of this decision).

The Disciple states that the Annual Conference (AC) is the one who agrees on the number of districts and that it is the job of the Bishop to set the boundaries and structure.Without a defined plan the AC gave permission for BG to move forward.I think that speaks highly of our trust and confidence in BG and that he will not lead us down the wrong path.

Last quadrennium we voted to add a district because the 14 current districts were too big for District Superintendents (DS) to handle, especially down in the Charlotte area.Now the DSs who make the cut and stay on will have double the amount of churches, clergy and area.how this will all be worked out will be handled by a team assembled by the Conference of equal representation of clergy and lay.They announced this list not too long ago.

I have to admit that I was a little disappointed when I saw the line up of the usual suspects.The conference took this leap with the hope to save money but also to become more vital in our conference.There was talk of making sure we are not doing the same old thing over and over again because they same old thing really isn’t working.That sounded exciting, promising and I truly believe it is what BG wants for our conference and our denomination as a whole.

Yet I believe some people are missing from this team that could help bring a new set of eyes to our conference to move us forward.I cannot speak about the laity on this team, only to the clergy.But as I looked at the clergy that will represent the conference and help it decide what this huge restructuring will look like there were no young clergy named.No one under the age of 40 (from the looks of it), forget the legal age of ‘young clergy’ which tops out at 35.There is no one who received their Masters of Divinity in this millennium or who has a congregation who averages less than 100 people in worship each Sunday.

It seems the usual suspects will make the decisions.The rural small churches, which makes up the vast majority of our congregations in our conference, will have no clergy representation.The young clergy, who are a small minority, are the same way.I think an opportunity to be really innovative and bring new eyes to the table may have been missed.I pray I am wrong.

I pray for this team as they meet to discuss what our conference will look like and act like for the next however many years.I pray that God will work through them to empower the UMC in WNCC to become relevant, to grow, and to be full of vital congregations doing life changing ministry through Jesus Christ for the people in our communities.